I’ve written before about the AT&T MicoCell, a device that costs between $50 and $150 (depending upon whether you also purchase extra services) that uses your existing high speed internet to give you a bubble of excellent AT&T 3G service in about 40 feet each direction from the placement of the MicoCell. If you have trouble getting a good AT&T signal at your home or office, this may be a solution. You don’t have to purchase anything other than the unit itself, but if you pay $20 a month ($10 if you have AT&T internet service) the calls that you make on the MicroCell don’t count against your monthly minutes.
I haven’t had the opportunity to try a MicroCell myself yet, but I mention the MicroCell today because Rachel Metz of the Associated Press just posted a great hands-on review of the product. If you are thinking about purchasing a MicroCell, read this review. Dan Moren of Macworld also recently wrote about the MicroCell, although it doesn’t appear that he had a chance to test it himself, and Brian Iam and Matt Buchanan of Gizmodo penned this review a few weeks ago.
All of the reports that I have seen, including these recent reviews, anecdotal postings on online forums, and reviews from folks in places like North Carolina where the product was first tested last year, have been very similar: the product seems to work great, with the only major complaint being the need to pay more to AT&T for better service.
UPDATE: Lawyer and iPhone app developer Cliff Maier posted a comment to this original post that I thought was interesting enough that it should be elevated to this post itself:
I
installed mine last night. It took around 90 minutes to get a GPS lock
(weirdly, it happened right when I finally went into the room to check
on it.) I have it positioned about 15 feet away from a window, and the
window has closed metal blinds and is blocked by a tree, but it worked.
Once it gets a GPS lock, it takes another 5 minutes for the 3G light to
go steady.I tested it with my own iPhone 3GS, and I get 5 bars in the house,
and 1 bar about a block away. Haven’t yet tested to see the effect of
multiple devices and the effect (if any) on my DSL bandwidth.I installed it by plugging it into a gigabit switch which is, in
turn, plugged into my Airport Extreme. You can also install it by
plugging it into the DSL modem and then plugging your router into it, if
you want to prioritize voice over data.I tried adding my iPad wifi+3GS as an authorized device (for
giggles), but the iPad seems not to have the plumbing to see the
microcell.
I installed mine last night. It took around 90 minutes to get a GPS lock (weirdly, it happened right when I finally went into the room to check on it.) I have it positioned about 15 feet away from a window, and the window has closed metal blinds and is blocked by a tree, but it worked. Once it gets a GPS lock, it takes another 5 minutes for the 3G light to go steady.
I tested it with my own iPhone 3GS, and I get 5 bars in the house, and 1 bar about a block away. Haven’t yet tested to see the effect of multiple devices and the effect (if any) on my DSL bandwidth.
I installed it by plugging it into a gigabit switch which is, in turn, plugged into my Airport Extreme. You can also install it by plugging it into the DSL modem and then plugging your router into it, if you want to prioritize voice over data.
I tried adding my iPad wifi+3GS as an authorized device (for giggles), but the iPad seems not to have the plumbing to see the microcell.
These things confuse me. AT&T wants me to give them my money for one of these devices and then wants me to use my separately paid for bandwidth to offload my calls from their network that can’t handle call and data traffic volume I’m paying to get. Unless you’re in an area without coverage, why is this a good idea?
And why should I help these clowns when still can’t tether?
If the microcell catches on as a paid service, I think AT&T should just jump to the next logical step — get their subscribers to pay to put larger cells on their roofs (next to their satellite dishes) to create a “small tower” network to avoid having to build/pay for large cell towers.
This way, their 3G coverage could be everywhere, and the consumers would directly pay for it. Jeez, I should be CEO of AT&T Wireless.
yeah, yeah, yeah. It sucks that AT&T won’t just go and build a cell tower in my backyard for me (well, preferably in my neighbor’s back yard. A neighbor far enough away that I can’t see the tower, but close enough to give me 5 bars).
So I can be righteously indignant, or I can make a one-time payment (less than what most lawyers pay for a pair of shoes) and go from 0-1 bar in my house to 5 bars in my house and get on with my life.
If I care, I can cancel my landline and rely on my cell now. And I don’t get charged by the byte on my DSL line, so the tiny amount of bandwidth this thing takes is not costing me anything extra data-wise.
I spent a month with AT&T trying to activate the Microcell. Yes, we could power up. Yes, my internet speed was fast enough. In fact, they were shocked that my speed from TWCable was so fast (that’s why I have TWC and not AT&T who was my earlier provider). No, I couldn’t get a GPS lock to start out with. Why do they think I got the Microcell? But with coaching from them, we got a GPS lock. But we never got that fourth light to show activation of the equipment. The regularly scheduled callers from the “commitment team” who are trained in customer service followed up religiously to see if what I had been told to do to fix the problem had worked. What really irritated me was the multiple number of times the “commitment team” told me the “case team” had not done anything or that their notes were nonexistent. In fact, the “case team” cleared three tickets without resolving the problem. The Microcell now lives in the garage in the pile waiting to go to electronic recycling.